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Richard Ziba Peterson (1805-1849)
}} * New York Native * Early Mormon Missionary to the Indians * Early Settler of Zion Missouri * 1849 California Gold Rush participant Biography Richard "Ziba" Peterson was an early American Latter Day Saint best known as one of the four initial missionaries sent by Joseph Smith (1805-1844) in 1830 to preach to Native Americans in Indian Territory. This mission brought in several influential converts and introduced the church to Kirtland, Ohio and Jackson County, Missouri, which would become religiously significant to Mormonism. Peterson was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Oliver Cowdery (1806-1850) on April 18, 1830 in Seneca Lake, New York.Journal History, LDS Church Archives By June 1830 he had been ordained an elder. Peterson was one of six elders attending the church's first conference on June 9, 1830.Journal History, June 9, 1830 Mission Peterson was called as a missionary to the Native Americans (referred to as Lamanites by early Mormons) in Indian Territory with Parley Parker Pratt (1807-1857), Oliver Cowdery and Peter Whitmer (1809-1836), and left Fayette, New York on October 17, 1830. On this journey, they went through Kirtland, Ohio where they met a Reformed Baptist pastor friend of Pratt's, Sidney Rigdon. From their preaching, about 50 converts were baptized, including Rigdon, who became an important early leader of the Latter Day Saints. This early success in Kirtland led it to become a crucial gathering place for early Mormons, the headquarters of the church, and the place of the church's first temple. Peterson and the other missionaries continued to Jackson County, Missouri, on the borders of Indian Territory, where they established a tailor shop and baptized about 40 or 50 settlers. Joseph Smith would eventually come to Jackson County in 1831 and identify it as the place where Zion, or the New Jerusalem, would be built. While still in Missouri, Smith delivered a revelation that included a reprimand of Peterson for unspecified sins.D&C 58:60 LDS Scriptures Days later, on August 4, 1831, in public at a conference of the church, Peterson was again reprimanded and he confessed his transgression. Peterson's missionary call and reprimand are both recorded in the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of Latter Day Saint scripture, in sections 32 and 58. D&C 32 LDS Scriptures Zion Settlement Zion Settlement was a small, short-lived village of early members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints located near Independence, Missouri in Jackson County, Missouri. The church believes that this spot will be the central spot for building of the kingdom of God ("Zion" or "New Jerusalem") in the latter-days per revelation given to the prophet, Joseph Smith (1805-1844). The settlement collapsed in 1833 when angry anti-Mormon mobs drove the settlers out of the county. He married Rebecca Hopper on August 11, 1831, with whom he would have eight children. The Hopper family had been among the converts baptized by Peterson and the other missionaries in Jackson County. Peterson was reordained an elder by Lyman Wight (1796-1858) on October 2, 1832, but when the church was driven out of Jackson County in 1833, Peterson stayed and left Mormonism. California Gold Rush He and his family left for California on May 3, 1848, arriving in Dry Diggins (Placerville), California in October 1848, where he was elected sheriff. His hanging of three outlaws earned Dry Diggins the nickname "Hangtown." Peterson died in 1849. Research Notes Peterson's article in the Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History states his birth was in 1818 in Burke County, North Carolina, which may have been mistaken with his wife's birth in 1808 in Burke County, North Carolina. If Peterson's birth year was 1818 he would have been 12 years old when he was ordained an Elder in 1830, which is doubtful. The article's author, H. Dean Garrett, wrote three years earlier, in 1997, "No identifieable sources of his birth, parentage, or his early childhood have been discovered. … Apparently, he was a young man in his late teens or young adulthood when he was baptized." References * - Wikipedia Biography * Saints:History of the LDS Church Ch 9 Come Life or Come Death (and Ch 10) * Category:American Latter Day Saints Category:American Mormon missionaries in the United States Category:California sheriffs Category:Converts to Mormonism Category:Former Latter Day Saints Category:American Latter Day Saint missionaries Category:Lawmen of the American Old West Category:People from Jackson County, Missouri Category:Year of birth unknown Category:Doctrine and Covenants people Category:Latter Day Saint missionaries in the United States Category: Mormon pioneers of Missouri